When Stuck in Darkness Light a Candle
by TigerHeart
Summary: The Fourth Great Ninja war has ended, but the young Kazekage's struggles have only begun. Fuu the Seven-Tails Jinchuuriki who was Gaara's love, had died some time ago. It's only now that Gaara can process that fact. To make matters worse, Gaara has lost his ability to do ninjutsu and he's plagued by nightmares that seem way too real.
1. The Grey World

Gaara dreaded going to sleep.

For the past few weeks he'd had pretty much the exact same dream. He was stuck on a small wooden boat in the middle of a vast ocean. The air he breathed in was salty and cool and should be refreshing yet it was not. Not a single thing was as it should be in the strange world of his dreams. And he once again found himself there stuck on the boat with nobody to talk to, the thing that came closest to some kind of conversation was the hollow lapping of water against the side of the boat. Despite having nobody to talk to, Gaara was not alone on this raft, there was another passenger, a mysterious ferryman who pulled the boat along.

The ferryman stood at the front of the boat, he was tall and thin and wore long black robes that were tied at the hip with a greasy belt. The robes concealed most of his body except for his upper arms and feet. His hands were gaunt and bony, and his skin was greasy and brown like rotting seaweed.

"Hello again." Gaara spoke to the strange man.

The ferryman stopped pulling the boat on his long pole for a moment and turned to face Gaara. The man's eyes burned red like hot embers, he had a dirty and unkempt beard that trickled down from his hollow face. The ferryman did not say a word to Gaara, and went back to pulling on his long stick.

Gaara was not surprised by the ferryman's silence. The boat was surrounded by a vast and empty ocean with small waves flittering silently across. There was nothing much for Gaara to see so he lied down and stared at the sky waiting for the dream to pass, as he had done a number of times previously. Sometimes he would wait for what seemed like hours, sometimes it was less than that. And the odd time it would last for so long that he'd start to loose sense of himself. As Gaara stared up at the astral ceiling above him he recalled that previously the sky had been a brilliant and deep blue, much like during a sunny day in the world which Gaara hailed from. But that was not the case anymore, now it was a deep monotone grey. The sky had become less and less colourful with each new dream that Gaara spent in this unsettling place. Even this worlds sun had lost its vigour. Where it once shone a bright and vigorous gold, now it radiated a drab white light that gave ghostly illumination to all that it touched. This change was not sudden, it happened so slowly that Gaara became accustomed to the change and did not realise that the colour was draining out of his surroundings until he thought back to how it was when he first came here. Since Gaara could not control his dreams in this place there was not much he could do other than to lie down and try to empty his mind of all thoughts. He cast aside a thought as soon as it arose only to for another thought to come along which in turn would have to be expelled. After doing this for an undiscernible amount of time Gaara was roused from his meditation without warning.

**PLUMP!**

Gaara shot up to see that the heavy crashing noise came from the boat docking into shallow waters.

**KHHH! KHH! KH!**

The boat scraped against the gravelly sea floor below, however the ferryman was unperturbed and guided the boat into a small wooden dock that stood over the deathly still waters. Gaara got up and saw that the ferryman was pointing towards the dock, motioning Gaara to get off the boat. Gaara did as was suggested and took in everything around him as this had not happened before in his dreams. All around him was grey. Grey sky above him with grey clouds, grey waters behind him, and a grey sandy beach in front of him. Even the wood underneath him was grey. It also looked centuries old and rotten. Hesitantly Gaara turned to the ferryman.

"Where have you taken me."

For the first time ever the ferryman spoke. His voice was deep and raspy like the sound of a sickly old man. He did not answer Gaara's question.

"Go to the beach. I won't leave. I can't anyway."

Gaara gave a bewildered nod and tiptoed across the platform and onto the sandy shore below. There was no wind, everything was silent and Gaara felt very cold.

Once he reached the shore he turned to the ferryman. "OK I'm on the shore!"

The ferryman stared at Gaara with his fiery eyes and raised his knobbly hand to point upwards in front of Gaara to the top of a grassy dune. The grass also had no colour other than another shade of grey. But a single figure stood at the hilltop where the ferryman pointed and Gaara recognised her.

His eyes widened with a mixture of disbelief and glee. "Fuu!" He cried out as he lost all hesitation and galloped towards her with the determination of a race-horse. As he came up the hill Fuu waved her hand against Gaara. "Go back!" She said. "Don't come any closer it's a trap!"

Gaara did not heed her words and against her warnings he came up to the hilltop panting for breath, but the dry and icy air left him parched and breathless.

He looked at Fuu and reached out with his right arm to touch her hair. Unlike everything else around the two of them Fuu's colour was not gone. Her hair was still the beautiful mint green that he adored. Her skin was still reddish bronze like it had always been. Everything about her was just as he remembered the last time he had seen her, her clothes, her deep orange eyes, her amber hairclip and even the appearance of her age. Nothing was different. When Gaara had known her she was 17 years old and he at the time was 15. Over two years had passed since then and she had not aged even a month. Gaara brought his hand down to her cheek and much to his terror she felt cold. He shakily retracted his hand. "What's going on Fuu? Where are we?"

"I don't know." Fuu replied. "I didn't come here by choice and it seems like neither did you. Although all of you isn't here right now. All of me is though."

Fuu's words confused Gaara just as much as everything else around him. "What do you mean?"

"You're not dead yet Gaara. But I've died. Everyone else here is dead too, except you."

"Yeah." Replied Gaara in a voice that was barely above a whisper and sounded of repressed emotion. "I forgot that you died." He stood in silence for a long time and Fuu didn't reply. Eventually Gaara turned around and heaved a sigh. "This is all just a dream. I'm not really talking to Fuu, this is just all in my imagination."

"I wish you were right about that." Replied Fuu. "If this is just a dream then I wouldn't be stuck in this horrible place. But this is real! If this is a dream then why don't you just wake up."

"I will eventually." Gaara muttered more to himself than to what he thought to be a figment of his subconscious. "But right now I just can't. Still, I wish I could really talk to you Fuu. There's so many things I wish we could've talked about."

"I'm right here."

Gaara continued on talking to the sky. "There's so many things we could've done. You told me that we were friends, but we never got to spend any time together after the Chunin exams. It's sad. I really missed you when I found out you died. I still miss you."

"Well, on the one hand I don't like that you are suffering. But I am glad that you cared about me enough to miss me. I always worried that my life was so insignificant that I would die and nobody would care."

Gaara looked back at Fuu, all the memories that were flooding into his head about his friend that he'd secretly loved were making him emotional. Gaara didn't really believe in life after death, he figured that the continuation of the ego would be too good to be true. His life made him get used to the idea that nothing would ever really be as it should. Never the less, when he heard the first reports of Fuu's death from his Akatsuki informants Gaara stormed off alone and paced around the Sunagakure gardens feeling the exact same emotions that came to him whenever he'd visit the grave of his mother. It was a feeling that made him think about death and wonder "what's next?"

It was with that same hopefulness that he tentatively stepped closer to Fuu. "Tell me, if you really are Fuu. How did you end up here?"

Fuu smiled. "I knew you would believe me. You're my friend after all." She sighed. "I'll answer your question. I died not long after the Chunin exams. When Kegon, Yoro and I were heading back to our village we were confronted by the Akatsuki. The two who attacked us were really strong, one of them was Kakazu, he was legendary a missing nin from our village. I don't remember much of it. They killed Kegon and Yoro and then I got so angry that I just saw red. I think the Nanabi took over me. But the next thing I knew I was surrounded in black, and I felt that the Nanabi was being drained out of me and then I died. I saw a lot of memories from my life, a lot of bad things happened to me, but I saw some good things too like when Shibuki saved me and when I became your friend. After the memories finished playing there was a white light that sort of just enveloped me. I was so tired, so I just let it happen. I figured this was all meant to be. But then I saw something that didn't make sense. It was a spot of grey. Just a little spot at first. I was confused because it wasn't meant to be there. I don't know how I knew that it wasn't supposed to be, after all I had never been told about any of this. I just knew. Kind of like how you know how to breath. It's like the white belonged and I just knew it, but the grey didn't belong and it was so obvious even though I don't know why it was obvious. Anyway, the grey got bigger and bigger and sucked me in against my will. I wanted to fight it, but I was just so tired. And then I was in a coffin and I had a body again. Except the body wasn't mine, it was like a puppet that my soul was called into, and the Nanabi was back. I felt the other Jinchuuriki too from other Ninja villages. They like me were forced to fight against our will against the last two remaining Jinchuuriki."

"Edo tensei." Murmured Gaara. "So you were brought back during the 4th great Ninja war? I'll have to ask Naruto about that."

"Yeah, Naruto. He was one of the guys I was forced to fight against."

"I didn't know that." Gaara began to think more and more that this wasn't just his imagination. "Go on. What happened next?"

"Right." Fuu continued. "Then the spell we were all under was broken and I returned to the white and all seemed like it was going to be well. But once again, I saw something in the whiteness that should not have been there. I was meant to go on to whatever it is we do after we all die, but another grey smudge appeared and something else pulled me in and I woke up here. I've been here for a while now."

Gaara didn't know what to say to Fuu. Everything she told unsettled him but he needed to know more. "How long have you been here for?"

"I don't know. I feel like its been a while. I lost track of time. There's nothing in this place that's alive so time doesn't really matter here. I don't like it."

"I know what you mean. This is just un-natural."

Gaara remembered that Fuu used to be bright and lively. But now she quivered in fear and her words were all wrong as she spoke. She was meant to be happy and full of jokes. But now she spoke with no excitement, like this place had gotten into her. "It's not just un-natural it's bad, really bad." She pointed behind her. "The further in you go, the worse it gets. But you can't stay here or in any once place for too long, you can't rest or you start to lose yourself. You just have to keep walking. Sometimes I get pulled around by something. I don't know what. I was further in just a while ago but I got brought back here somehow and then I saw you. I can tell that you didn't come the same way as me. I don't know what brought me here, but it must want you for some reason. You can still go back. Heed my warning, and pray for me."

"I'm not going to go back!" Gaara shouted. "There's no way that I'm going to just leave you here!" He grasped onto Fuu and pulled her into a tight hug. For a moment Fuu felt solid, but then her body de-solidified and Gaara saw her form become like wisps of smoke and she was pulled away by a sudden wind.

"Pray for me Gaara! But don't come after me!" She cried out. Then she was gone and Gaara awoke in his bed in tears.

* * *

"One hundred and one! Come on Kazekage-Sama you can do it! One-hundred and two! One-hundred and three!?"

**THUMP!**

Gaara's muscles could take no more. For a good while they had been screaming at him to stop but he kept on pushing himself until he collapsed to the floor.

"Good Job Kazekage-Sama! That's a new record for push-ups! You're making great progress!" The man encouraging Gaara was called Shira. He was a Ninja from Gaara's village that served in the special forces. In the time since Gaara met him he'd worked his way up from Genin to the rank of Jonin. "I think that's a wrap for today. You don't want to push yourself too much or you'll do damage."

Gaara pulled himself up from the ground shakily. "Mastering Taijutsu is no small feat."

Shira reached out with his lean but muscular arm to help Gaara up. "It sure isn't."

When Gaara took Shira's hand he felt that it was extremely calloused from years of healed cuts, scrapes and bruises.

"But the harder you train" Shira continued, "the less of these you get." He pointed with his thumb to a rather nasty scar on his neck. Many other scars cris-crossed the young man's light skin all along his body and there were a few old knife wounds on his face too. "It's what you have to do when you can't use Ninjutsu."

"Yeah." Gaara replied sadly.

"Don't worry Kazekage-sama! Under my tutelage your Taijutsu will go beyond anything you've ever managed before! And besides I'm sure your Chakra will return to you soon enough!" Shira flicked his grey hair and gave a cheesy smile and thumbs up.

"Hmph." Gaara smiled. "You remind me a lot of Rock Lee."

All of a sudden Shira's eyes widened and he bowed down to Gaara. "KAZEKAGE – SAMA!" He screamed to the ground so loud that Gaara jumped backwards and his hair shot up.

"I'm not deserving of such high praise… I wish I could train you for longer! But sadly my duties with the Special forces calls."

"Come on now Shira no need to start crying over this." Gaara rolled his eyes.

Shira stood up. "When I first heard of Rock Lee it gave me courage. Knowing that there another Ninja out there just like me who kept on fighting against all odds it gave me strength! And seeing you now Kazekage-sama even though you've lost your Ninjutsu powers you still fight on!" His face curled up to hold back even more tears. "I will remember this day!"

After the emotional outburst from Shira, both he and Gaara did a cooldown jog and some final stretches to finish out that days training regimen. The schedule of the Kazekage, the leader of Sunagakure was quite a busy one and soon after washing up Gaara found himself heading towards a Sunagakure council meeting. However before the meeting he made sure to talk to his brother, Kankuro who was also on the council.

Kankuro was two years Gaara's senior. At the best of times Kankuro looked quite serious. His brown hair and dark sunken eyes were the cause of that, and when he went on missions he would don a black cloak and mask his face with purple war-paint. However now, even with his bland councillor outfit and his face as normal he looked more serious than ever.

"How are you getting on in your Taijutsu training bro?"

"I think I'm making progress, but it's a slow process. I think I'm better than most Chunin would be now. Mastering Taijutsu takes many years of rigorous training. Shira worked incredibly hard ever since he was a child, always pushing his body in order to break past his limits. If I am to get to his level it will take me quite a while."

"Yeah." Kankuro replied grimly. "I suppose there's nothing else you can do other than train your taijutsu, and try to find out the cause for your loss of Ninjutsu."

"About that, I think I might be on to a possible cause. It's a bit vague though, but it's something."

Kankuro eyes lit up at Gaara's statement. "Do explain."

"I've been having these very strange dreams. The first of these dreams seemed normal enough in the sense that I couldn't remember very much of them and they were hazy. However they soon became increasingly vivid to the point where they were hyper realistic. I couldn't control my surrounding, I only controlled my actions. It was more like I was in another world, not a dream.

"What happened in these dreams."

"The whole time I was stuck in a boat in the middle of some ghastly ocean. There was a ferryman with me in the boat, pulling it along slowly and silently not saying a word. I would simply lie in the boat and wait for time to pass. These dreams would seem like they went on for hours, even days. Sometimes I would meditate for the time to go by."

"Wait", Kankuro interjected, "don't mean you that dreamed you were meditating?"

Gaara shook his head. "No. It felt as real and clear as actual meditation. It's like my mind was transported to another world and I was fully conscious in that world. I haven't had dreams so vivid since I had talked to the Shukaku in my dreams when I was a kid."

"I see." Kankuro stroked his chin thoughtfully. "So, you were sitting in a boat waiting for time to pass. Then what?"

"All the dreams went that way, until last night that is." Gaara began, before explaining everything he'd seen from the most recent dream. Kankuro listened intently, he noticed that his brother who was usually aloof spoke uncharacteristically emotively when he got to talking about Fuu. When Gaara finished his explanation and asked for his brothers opinion, Kankuro was at a loss for words.

"Weird isn't it." Said Gaara to break the silence.

"Very weird."

"I suppose one way of seeing if its real or not would be to try to confirm some of the details in the dream that I didn't know about."

Kankuro nodded in agreement. "You know Gaara, I was thinking of getting Rock Lee to help train you in Taijutsu while Shira is away doing his mission for the Special forces. His Sensei Might Gai fought against the masked man alone with Naruto before the Edo-tenseis were undone. He might be able to give you the information you need. I'll apply for a mission with Konoha asking for him. I'll only mention the training part though."

"That would be great." Gaara smiled. "I'm sure Shira would be very happy to see Rock Lee as well."

"Rock Lee and Shira are bother very brave men." Said Kankuro with fortitude. " I couldn't handle always fighting up close. I don't like they idea of you being a close quarter combat taijutsu specialist my brother. We're both better off being mid to long range fighters. I've seen so many close quarter fighters get mauled to bits."

Gaara nodded sadly in agreement. "Me too."

"Well, this possible explanation kind of relieves me because it means you might get your powers back soon." Kankuro pursed his lips together and breathed in sharply. "It also worries me though, because if it is real then who or what will you have to deal with in that dream world. I don't like the descriptions Fuu gave of it either."

"True." Gaara said as they both stopped outside the Suna council meeting room doorway. "But right now I'm more worried about this meeting. I'm sure the council is going to crucify me today!"

Kankuro placed his hand reassuringly on his brother's shoulder. "Don't worry little bro, I got your back. I'm always looking out for you."

Gaara smiled back at Kankuro and whispered "let's do this!", as he burst open the doors to the Sunagakure Council meeting room. In the background there were statues of the first four Kazekage. They looked over the Suna council as a reminder of the village's history. The council sat at a large roundtable with ten seating positions. Gaara and Kankuro took the two seats which remained unfilled.

Sitting opposite from the Kazekage's seat was Ebizō, one of the village's most prominent elders and the head of the Suna council, for the time being at least. His now deceased sister Chiyō had saved Gaara's life at the cost of her own. Ebizō and Chiyo bad been given the title of "The Honoured Siblings of Sunagakure". It is rare that a high up Shinobi survives for very long, yet despite having taken a huge part in Sunagakures politics and its many wars since his youth Ebizō still managed to reach the venerable old age of seventy-three. This was due to his calm demeanour and sharp analytical mind which had always been imperative to his own survival and the survival of his village. Ebizō was a former enemy of Gaara's, Chiyo was the one who decided to make Gaara a Jinchuriki and Ebizō did not argue with his sister. When Gaara failed to control the Shukaku, Ebizō and Chiyō were among the many council members who decided it would be best to have Gaara replaced with another Jinchuuriki. However, he later retired from his Shinobi duties and was no longer a threat to Gaara. After the death of his Sister he decided to come back to the council to keep himself busy, and by then Gaara had proven himself to be a worthy Kazekage so needed not fear Ebizō..

Sitting beside Ebizō was Tōjurō who held the number two position in the Sunagakure Council. He was another venerable elder, however unlike Ebizō he very much resented the generations which came after him. For this reason Gaara did not trust him.

Then there was Jōseki, a man in his fifties who was concerned very much with peace and stability of Sunagakure. He had previously believed Gaara to be a threat to the village and as such was part of the faction which plotted Gaara's demise. Since Gaara became the Kazekage his opinion of Gaara had changed for the better. However his overriding loyalty was to the village and he would act in what he perceived to be Suna's best interests at any cost. Gaara knew that Jōseki would be quite displeased with the current state of affairs regarding his chakra.

Ikanago was the fourth in command in the council and the third most elderly of the Sunagakure shinobi. He was very loyal to Gaara's father, the previous Kazekage and had shown a degree of loyalty to Gaara too. Most likely because of a strange emotional investment he had the bloodlines of the village. He had often suggested to Gaara that he should continue his bloodline. Gaara of course was still bereaving over Fuu and so he did not listen to Ikanago's suggestions much which was the cause of annoyance to the man.

Gōza was a council member who cared intensely about the villages appearance to the rest of the world more than anything else.

Sitting beside him was Sajō a fifty-one year old man who had served on the council for many years, Gaara was not too close to him, however he knew that Sajō always put the village first and Gaara had a degree of respect for him.

One of the council members who was loyal to Gaara was Ryūsa. He was cleanly shaven man in his forties. Gaara had once been abducted before, and when that happened Ryūsa was against the idea of electing a new Kazekage immediately.

Another member of the council who Gaara could trust was Baki. Gaara always kept Baki sitting at his side along with Kankuro. Baki had previously been the Jonin in charge of Gaara's team and he was the Sensei of Gaara's siblings Kankuro and Temari. Baki was a skilled and powerful master of Wind-Style Ninjutsu and was ruthless in battle. His prowess and reputation was such that he became the second youngest Sunagakure councillor ever. Even at his current age of thirty-four he was still one of the youngest men in the room.

And then of course there was Gaara's brother. Kankuro was the youngest man to ever become a Sunagakure councillor and alongside Baki he was the only man to become a councillor in his twenties.

Ebizō stood up from his seat to commence the meeting and everyone else in the room followed suit. "Now that we are all here, let us commence the meeting."

With that everyone sat down. There was a brief moment of silence as each man looked across the room waiting for somebody to make the first move.

Gaara decided to make the first statement. "I know you all want to discuss my Chakra problems, however before we get bogged down in that lets take care of some of the other matters first."

Tōjurō shook his head. "No I that is an extremely important talking point!" He smiled slyly. "I hope you are not trying to dodge the topic Kazekage."

"That's Kazekage-sama to you Tōjurō!" Kankuro said with clenched teeth.

Tōjurō's smug demeanour became expressionless. "Of course Kankuro. My apologies."

"I agree with Tōjurō", said Joseki. "As Suna is one of the five great villages we must have a Kage who is stronger than most Jonin across the world. The fact that you have lost that prowess is a major threat to the stability of the village."

"Yes." Added Sajō. He stared at Gaara through squinted eyes. "A strong Kage is what the village deserves. No matter what Gaara, the village must come first."

Gaara sighed. "I understand your concerns. I'm not trying to dodge the issue at all. I just think we should finish the meeting by discussing that issue in order to get all the other talking points out of the way first."

"I agree with Kazekage-sama." Announced Ryūsa. "His chakra problems are by far the least straightforward issue of the day. All the other matters we can deal with swiftly. We'd better deal with them first before getting to the dicier issue."

"What else is there to talk about?" Joseki inquired.

"Well." Baki began. "Our exploratory Geologists were successful in discovering some gold seams to the south. This could significantly boost our village's economy."

Suna's economy was something that Joseki always was concerned with due to being the treasurer of the village. "Ok, let's talk about that first so!"

As Gaara had correctly predicted the many mundane matters of the day were progressed through swiftly. Or at least quick by the standards of council meetings at any rate. The topics of conversation varied from clan compound infrastructure development, to economic affairs to relations with other villages. The topic of Gaara's loss of Ninjutsu abilities came up from time to time however Ebizō wanted the meeting to move along so he instructed the council to move on to the matter of the day until there was nothing left to discuss except Gaara's predicament.

"Now then." Ebizō began. "We've gotten almost everything covered, there's just one more matter."

The entire council stared at Gaara and there was a moment of silence.

Gōza broke the silence. "We cannot have a Kazekage who can't even use Ninjutsu. Sunagakure is one of the Five Great Shinobi villages of the world, we have to think of the dignity of this village!"

"Absolutely right!" Tōjurō added.

Ryūsa shook his head. "No need to rush matters." He faced Gaara. "If your condition continues, then yes Kazekage-sama will have to step down. But I think it's too early to make that call."

"We're still hoping that whatever my brother is currently facing can be cured." Kankuro added.

"Well, there's no breakthroughs in that area now is there?" Said Tōjurō.

"Unfortunately not yet." Replied Gaara.

Kankuro looked at him as if to say, "why didn't you tell them about the dreams?"

Gaara shook his head at his brother. He wanted to keep that matter to himself for the time being, and besides it was too vague a breakthrough for the council to accept it anyway.

"See." Tōjurō insisted. "We can't just wait for a cure that may or may not come!"

"You could take some time off and focus on securing your bloodline Kazekage sama" said Ikanago.

"Oh not this again." Gaara muttered to himself. He quietly shut his eyes and let the arguments unfold. The councillors went on and on and on and argued endlessly and needlessly. Gaara closed his eyes and cleared his mind, it made him very upset that the councillors were so brazenly talking about replacing him. Had he not served this village selflessly for years now? He led the village in a great war. The village took away his dignity as a child, yet he got over it and worked to improve Sunagakure! Did this mean nothing to them? In addition to this Gaara had a long day and was starting to become quite tired. He tried from time to time to get back into the discussion, however he'd lose track of the conversation pretty quickly once again. This happened again and again as an hour and a half passed by.

"Hey Kazekage are you listening!"

Gaara was roused to attention by Tōjurō. "Uh, yes of course."

Tōjurō snickered. "Well then do you have any objections?"

"Shit." Gaara whispered under his breath. He knew he'd been caught out. It was a grave embarrassment for the Kazekage to not pay attention due to a council meeting. "Objections to what?" He sighed.

"So you really weren't paying attention!" Tōjurō shouted indignantly. Though behind that angry tone Gaara could tell that Tōjurō loved having a little bit of power over him.

The other councillors did not look pleased. Gaara hung his head in shame.

Ebizō spoke up. "As head of the council, I think it would be best that you remain nominally the Kazekage for the foreseeable future. However, a regent will take over most of the role for the time being so you can focus on personal matters such as securing your bloodline and finding a cure for your condition."

Gaara stroked his chin. "Who will be the regent?"

"That is for you to decide." Said Ebizō. "Though we will vote on whether or not we will agree with your choice of regent."

Gaara faced Baki. Before he could say anything Baki shook his head. "I have that long term S-ranked mission to take care of."

"That is true." Gaara said. "If you didn't have time to fight in the war because of it you wouldn't have time for a regency either." Gaara shifted his perspective to Kankuro who nodded back to Gaara.

"I will designate my brother as regent!"

"You're brother?" snarled Tōjurō. "Nepotism much?"

"Kankuro is my right hand man. And he's well respected throughout the village." Gaara replied. "Call the vote Ebizō."

The venerable head of council nodded. "All councillors in favour of Kankuro becoming regent Kazekage raise your hand."

Kankuro, Baki, and Ryūsa were the first to raise their hands. Ikanago then followed suit saying, "Kankuro is of lord Fourth's bloodline, he would be the perfect regent." Gōza also raised his hand. "Kankuro is quite popular." Finally Joseki raised his hand. "I'm glad we've come to a decision. This will make the village more stable."

"Hmmph!" Grunted Tōjurō angrily.

Ebizo clapped his hands. "Very well then. Kankuro you have been designated as regent by popular vote. I now call an end to this council meeting. Thank you all."

* * *

After the meeting ended Gaara chatted briefly with Kankuro about the implications of the council's decision. Then Gaara went to his office where he set out to do a large amount of paperwork. Normally he dreaded doing so much work, however he reasoned that it would at least take his mind off things. It needed to be done at any rate and Kankuro becoming regent added to it considerably. Gaara got about half way through it before his fatigue got to him and he fell asleep at his desk.

Gaara couldn't exactly tell when it was, but at some point he once again returned to the strange grey world. He was back on the grassy knoll by the sea. "Dammit I must have fallen asleep!"

Gaara remembered that he'd talked to Fuu at this very spot. He looked around for her, but it was in vain. By the beach there was only the ferryman waiting at the dock and behind him was the vast empty sea that stretched out to an endless abyss of blackness. Gaara knew Fuu wouldn't be there. He remembered that Fuu seemed to be taken further inland by some unknown force. He looked ahead of him to the empty grey plains and wasteland that stretched out before him. He could see further ahead it got darker until it reached the black and rapacious horizon where even the clouds stopped, where everything stopped. "That's where she is." Gara murmured to himself. "I'm coming Fuu!" He set out hesitantly at first, taking small steps. He wasn't sure that this was the right decision. Slowly he picked up his pace until he was trucking along at a steady rate. As he stepped his feet in the sandy ground below, it pulled back at him very lightly as if it was trying to sap away at his strength. Eventually he saw another person on a hill in the distance. This excited Gaara and he hurried along. Eventually more people came into view. When he got close to them Gaara was struck by their appearance. They were all naked. Their skin was hard and flaky and they slowly dragged their weak and emaciated forms across the plains at a snail's pace. They all headed in the same direction as Gaara.

"Why didn't I have more time." One man spoke in a raspy voice. "I never got to say what I wanted to her. I was gonna win the archery competition to prove myself to her." Gaara looked at the man. Though his body seemed to be marred by the landscape he could see that when the man came here was young enough.

Gaara watched in horror as the young man dug his hand into his chest tore andopen a bloody cavity with his nails. Then he plunged his hand into the cavity and pulled out a rib. It came out slowly and caused the man so much pain that he tore apart his throat from screaming. "I'll make a bow." He rattled in a barely audible manner from his torn throat. "I'll make a bow and become a master archer. A master archer like I should have gotten the CHANCE TO BECOME ARGH!" He dropped his rib on the ground and faced the horizon. His ears twitched like he was hearing somebody's voice. "I'll get another chance you say? OK I'll go then. I'll go and get another chance! Or I'll make everyone who sent me here pay!" Then fell to the ground. For a moment he was still, but then he began to pull himself along by his arms leaving a bloody trail as he went."

"What the hell." Gaara muttered. "This is horrible. I've got to get out of here!" He turned back towards the sea and began to run as fast as he could.

Then he woke up.

Gaara's face was buried in a ton of papers. When he lifted his head off his desk and finished rubbing his eyes he noticed that Kankuro stood at the back of the room with a concerned expression.

"Are you OK brother? You looked terrified in your sleep."

Gaara shook his head. "I would hardly call that sleep."

**A/N** **Hello everyone. Thanks for reading please review.**

**Edit: 5th Oct 2019, I slightly changed up a bit of the dialogue to go with some minor details int the plot that I've changed.**

**I'm working on a different way of writing with this fanfic. In the past I was more of a discovery writer. I would make some basic plans for how the story would go but often discover things along the way. This time however, I've planned out the entire plot for this fanfic so I'm going with more of an outline based writing method.**

**If any fans of my other story Tales of a Rogue Jinchuuriki are reading this, I will continue working on that story. I haven't given up on it. I haven't been thinking of it much in the last three months due to being more focused on real life but I do plan to continue on with it. I also figured out how I want that fanfiction to end.**


	2. Weak but Brave

Gaara was seated in his office chair trying in vain to get some paperwork done as he anxiously awaited the results of the medical examinations from the morning. Ever since he lost his chakra Gaara sought out the services of the best medical ninja that Suna could offer. They would devise tests to conduct on him and on a weekly basis he would be examined. Always he'd hope that the check-up would yield some kind of results, thus far however the doctors couldn't figure out what was going on. As Gaara sank down exhaustedly in his seat he allowed himself a moment to wonder if this time something might come up.

"Hello Kazekage-sama can I come in?" Spoke the head nurse as she knocked on the door.

Gaara raised his head in response although his body remained in its sunken seated posture. "Uhhhh. Yeah."

The nurse burst in the door carrying with her a number of files which she slapped down on the table in front of Gaara. She stared at him for a moment and sighed.

"We still don't know why your Chakra is missing. All the tests have been inconclusive."

Gaara was not surprised. He simply nodded quietly without saying anything.

"Although", the nurse pursed her lips and glowered at Gaara "your bloods showed a ridiculously high alcohol level!"

"Yeah?" He replied groggily.

"You were drinking las night weren't you!"

"Mmhmm."

'How much did you have to drink?"

Gaara shrugged. "I needed to get through the night. Didn't want to go to sleep. Can't handle the dreams."

"You're the Kazekage for goodness sake! You can't be drinking like that! A sake or a glass of wine every once in a while is fine, but its quite obvious you went way overboard. You've drank an obscene amount and look at you now you are hungover! None of the previous Kazekage's ever acted so irresponsibly!" She shook her head. "I'm keeping quiet about this and I've ordered the other nurses to do the same but I'm afraid the word has already gotten out. Just because you've lost your chakra doesn't mean people don't still look up to you, don't let them down!"

After the nurse finished scolding Gaara, he meekly thanked her before she took her leave. When she left Gaara sighed heavily. After being scolded so badly he felt terrible about himself and the hill of paperwork in front of him now seemed like a mountain. However, he didn't want to let people down again so he dutifully completed his work despite the ear splitting headache and his raging upset stomach.

* * *

Later on that day Gaara went training with Shira. Normally Shira was pumped up and ready to give his disciple some pointers, however this time he eyed Gaara with a displeased expression.

"Thank you for coming Gaara-sama. Let's begin by sparring."

Gaara nodded and they both clasped their hands together before bowing down in a customary greeting before a sparring session.

"Three," Shira said, "two, one. BEGIN!"

Shira mercilessly rushed towards Gaara and sent a volley of punches his way which Gaara could only barely block. Normally he would be able to handle those kind of attacks much more easily, however because of his headache it was hard to focus on Shira's manoeuvres.

It was barely a moment before Shira had broken Gaara's guard. He sent his fist straight into Gaara's stomach winding him badly. Gaara staggered backwards and fell to the ground. Just holding himself back from vomiting was all he could manage.

"Get up Kazekagke-sama, round two!"

Gaara did as he was told without having enough time to recover and Shira went on the offensive immediately. Shira swept his foot at Gaara's legs and knocked the red-head out of his stance. Then before Gaara could hit the ground he received a mighty kick to his chest which sent him rolling across the training room floor.

"Get up! It's not like I kicked you hard enough to break your bones! The Kazekage I know would be able to handle something like this!"

Despite his body begging him not to Gaara heeded Shira's call and forced himself up through sheer will in spite of all his physical pain.

"Lets go!" Shira shouted as he once again rushed mercilessly towards Gaara and giving him a kick that sent him flying backwards.

Shira watched as Gaara tried and failed to get back on his feet. "I could tell from the moment I saw you walk in that you were hungover. You knew we had training today, and that this was the last time I'd be able to help you out before my mission! Training is over for today. I wish we could have parted on better terms Gaara-sama, but I've got to go."

With that Shira stomped out of the training hall leaving Gaara alone with his thoughts.

Gaara lay on the ground for a couple of minutes, trying to hold a stoic expression on his face despite a cacophony of emotion wanting to escape. Occasionally he would hit his fist against the floor. Finally he was able to shakily bring himself to a stand.

"I have to keep training!" He muttered as he set out to do a number of push-ups. His hangover and the beating he'd just received was made it very hard to do any kind of strength or resistance training and everything in Gaara's body told him to just take a rest. But Gaara ignored his bodies warning and kept on pushing himself up and down maintaining good form. Eventually his vision started to blur and his head felt foggy. Despite this he kept on going until he was no longer in the training room. Now once again he was in the grey world.

"Did I pass out?" He thought to himself. The intensity of the pain from the training session had dulled considerably. However now he was once again greeted by the icy cold air of this mysterious realm.

He remembered what he'd seen the last time that he was here. All those people, who were suffering in the realm. It terrified him and he'd started running away. He woke up and didn't want to go back here so the following night he drank to keep his mind off of things and to try to avoid sleeping.

"Maybe if I get out of here." He thought. "I'll get my Chakra back." And so he continued along the path that he had begun in his last dream. He ran back to the ocean away from the mysterious land of the dead. He hoped he would be able to get back on the ferry. It wasn't long before he returned to the drab bay he arrived in.

The ferryman was still there and he narrowed his ember eyes at the sight of Gaara storming up to him.

"I want to stop having these dreams! If you are the part of my consciousness that's making this happen then go away! Are you some repressed memory? Then stay that way! My life has gone into disarray since these dreams have begun. I want out!"

The ferryman sighed. "It's incredible. The level to which you humans deny what is staring in front of you. Are you seriously still trying to pretend that this all isn't real? What about that girl? Don't you want to save her?"

Dread swept over Gaara like a tidal wave. He fell to his knees.

The ferryman stroked his greasy beard. "Hmm. It's very easy to be brave when you have a lot of power. When you are strong things that are supposed to be dangerous, well they really aren't dangerous. But if you take a champion's power from him then you will see his true nature." He chuckled. "I was only forced to bring you here. I can take you back if you want. Then for the rest of your miserable human life you will not see this place again. After you die however, well that remains to be seen.

So what will it be mortal? Will I bring you back in full to the mortal realm? "

"No don't!" Gaara muttered almost inaudibly. "I really don't want to be here, but I can't just leave now." He shuddered as he whispered "I have to go face whatever is here."

"Hmm. Perhaps you are not so pathetic after all." The ferryman looked beyond Gaara for a moment and his eyes widened. "Ah, I see that girl is back. You should talk to her."

Gaara twisted his head around to look behind him. He shakily shifted position and got up, however his head remained perfectly level as he was fixated upon the green haired girl standing before him.

"It's you again Fuu."

Fuu ran up to Gaara and buried her head in his chest. She clung to him tightly grabbing the cloth on his back with all the strength in her hands. "You're back. Thank God." Her voice trembled. "I'm so glad to have a break from it all. This place is soul killing."

"I'm here now, I won't leave you." Gaara said as he placed a reassuring hand on her head.

Silence then ensued as the two basked in each other's presence

Gaara was the first to break it. "You're the only good thing in this place, you know that Fuu?"

"I should be the one saying that about you." Fuu said meekly as she clung still to Gaara's frame. "I hate being like this. I want to be strong like Shibuki told me to, but in this place what can I do?"

"If you stay strong then so can I." Gaara said. "I'm not dead yet. I'll get to the bottom of this whole place if it's the last thing I do."

"OK."

"Try to remember things. Think of the past! Think of the good memories we made. Do you remember when we met Fuu?"

"Yeah, during the Chunin exams." She smiled. "I only went there because I was hoping to make some friends. I didn't really care about becoming a Chunin or anything."

"Well you were successful in that regard. You befriended my disciples Matsuri, Yukata and Mikoshi, as well as the leaf Ninja like Neji. And…" Gaara began. "I am extremely glad to have met you myself." He pulled Fuu more tightly into his embrace and tears began to trickle from his eyes. "I'm not going to leave my good friend Fuu hanging! Not in a place like this!"

"Thank you." Fuu said. "I think I can last a while longer now." She pulled herself out from Gaara a tad bit, but not enough so they were no longer in each others arms. Her orange eyes stared deeply into Gaara. "You're like a candle. You light this place up." She smiled. This time the smile actually reached her eyes. "Shibuki told me an old proverb once. 'Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.' I'll think of you and use that as my candle in this dark place."

"I'll do the same with you." Gaara replied.

"I'm being dragged away again." Fuu said as she felt her physical form become ethereal and like the wind again. She brought her hand and held onto Gaara's hand for as long as she could.

The feeling of Fuu's touch was the last think Gaara felt of her before she once again dissipated back inland.

Gaara sighed. "I have no choice but to go." He stared out at the dunes and the vast dreaded emptiness that stretched out before him for miles on end. Intuitively he knew that whatever it was that brought him and Fuu to this place lay at the centre. He didn't know how long it would take to get there, and he knew that the horrors that awaited him were worse than anything he'd ever faced before. The thought of going there made Gaara feel a deep and primal fear. It was the fear that lay at the core of every human soul. The fear of death, the fear of darkness, the fear of evil. Every fiber of Gaara's being, every cell in his body told Gaara that he should stay away from the centre. To run far away. To leave this place and never come back. Gaara would have to disregard that instinct.

"So then." Said the ferryman from behind Gaara. "Since you're going to the centre of this place I should tell you a few things first."

Gaara was shocked. The ferryman was actually going to help him! For ages Gaara had tried to convince this mysterious spirit to tell him what was going on, but it was to no avail. The spirit didn't even say a word to him. "You're finally going to explain what's happening?"

"Yes." Replied the spirit. "When you go back to sleep and your mind drifts back to your Chakra here I will tell you. For now though, I can tell that you are waking up."

"Huh?" Was all Gaara could say before he realised that he was once again in the training hall lying on the ground.


	3. A talk with Matsuri

The sun shone brightly over Sunagakure as it almost always would, but this time its searing heat did not beat down upon the village. The air was much cooler and more humid. A host of long altostratus clouds stretched across the sky. Kankuro sat outside in the Sunagakure Headquarters rock garden enjoying the scant cool air and listening to the faint gurgling of the water fountain beside him.

"Rainy season's coming soon." He muttered to himself as he stared at the clouds above. Though they didn't produce any rain they were a sign of what was to come, great cumulonimbus clouds which would bear down torrents of rain and bring lightning and thunder.

"Nice cool day today isn't it!" Spoke a chirpy female voice beside Kankuro.

"Ah Matsuri! Thanks for coming." Kankuro turned to face the girl and saw that she was fully decked out in her beige Sunagakure Shinobi Flak Jacket, her wrist guards, her headband and other parts of her armour. "I see you just came back from a mission. I'm sorry but I have another task for you."

"What is it? Can I at least go to the hot-springs first?" Matsuri asked somewhat hesitantly.

"I'm worried about my brother. I need you to keep an eye on him and make sure he's OK, maybe help him figure out the nightmares he's been having."

"Nightmares?"

"Yes. Ask him. You're his disciple so I'm sure he'll should trust you enough to talk about it. There's a certain person he's been having nightmares about. When it comes to my brothers emotions I am normally the best person to handle it. But this is the one rare exception where I'm afraid that I'd be too clueless to deal with the situation properly. I need your feminine touch for this you see."

"Well," Matsuri began, "Gaara is so cool, calm and collected all the time. It's hard for me to know what he's thinking and I rarely see much emotion in him." Matsuri's cheeks began to redden ever so slightly. "As a matter of fact he's the one who gave me emotional advice, like when he helped me get over my fear of weapons. I'd love it if he were to confide in me, but I don't know if he will."

Kankuro sighed. "I know my brother is difficult to get to, but I'm counting on you to at least try. Let me know if there's anything I need to be concerned about."

"Understood."

* * *

**Later that day….**

"I see." Matsuri said in reply to Gaara. She had gone to visit Gaara in his office as per Kankuro's request. She didn't want to beat around the bush, so she straightforwardly asked him about the nightmares he was having. As it turned out Kankuro had been correct about Gaara trusting Matsuri enough to talk about his strange visions. Gaara told Matsuri about every single vision he had right up to the last time Fuu appeared. "I must say Gaara, it sounds like you love this Fuu person." There was a degree of melancholy in Matsuri's voice as she spoke.

"Well of course I do." Gaara said in a matter of fact manner. "Everyone that I care about is someone I love!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, I love you."

"Wha wha wha wha what!" Matsuri's face instantly flushed red and her mouth was agape with surprise. But Gaara went on with his explanation as he wasn't finished.

"I love my siblings, I love my blood brother Naruto, I love my friends, I have love for the other Kage and all our comrades in the allied shinobi forces" Gaara went on and on.

Once Matsuri realised what Gaara was saying she re-aligned herself and her heart went back to a normal pulse rate. Albeit she was a tad bit disappointed that Gaara didn't mean what she thought he meant when he said "_I love you_."

"Um, I don't think you understand what I meant Gaara." Matsuri said with a bewildered chuckle that was also partially a sigh.

"Oh really? Well what did you mean?

Matsuri stared at Gaara wide eyed and bewildered. "Do you understand love at all Gaara?"

Gaara frowned at Matsuri which made the girl blink in surprise. She normally didn't see this much emotion in Gaara. "Yashamaru taught me plenty about love!" Gaara insisted.

"Who's that?"

"My uncle, God rest him he's dead now."

Matsuri was on fairly good terms with Gaara's older sister Temari. She remembered Temari reminiscing about an uncle of hers that she thought highly of. Perhaps this was that same uncle Matsuri mused. "What did he teach you?" She asked not wanting Gaara to linger on the thought of his uncle's deceased status.

"Love is what can heal wounds of the heart. That's what my uncle Yashamaru told me. He was the first person to teach me about love." Gaara folded his arms and clasped his eyelids shut. Then they burst open again upon a sudden realisation that Gaara had. He looked at the girl beofer him and said "Tell me Matsuri, maybe you'd have some insights about love like my old Uncle did. Since you think I'm missing something by all means fill me in!"

"Well." Matsuri smiled and shook her head. "That is a very complex topic. I suppose I'll try my best to explain it to you."

"Do please." Said Gaara. "Love is something that I always found difficult to grasp, I just wasn't raised in the same way as everyone else. Back when I was younger I used to think that the only love in the universe was self-love. In other words it was me living and fighting for myself. At the time I thought that the only reason I came into being was to be a tool for the village. But I wasn't wanted any-more because my father was not satisfied with my difficulty controlling the Shukaku. So since I failed that purpose and everyone wanted me dead why exist and live? The conclusion I came to was that I would love only myself and fight only for myself, that every other person existed to magnify that love and that when they would try to kill me I would survive and overcome it and prove my self-love to myself. That way my existence wouldn't vanish."

Matsuri was silenced by Gaara's words. She tried to wrap her mind around what he'd just said. Gaara didn't say anything to her and patiently awaited her response. When she finally spoke, she did so in a subdued voice. "That's quite sad."

"I don't think that way anymore." Gaara said. "Naruto helped me realise the error in my ways."

Matsuri nodded. This was the first time she'd ever heard about Gaara's past from him. At that current moment Gaara was the beloved Kazekage of Sunagakure, the heroic leader of the village who protected it with his life on many an occasion. But there was a time when he was hated and despised by everyone. When she had first met Gaara it was when he took her on as a disciple. Apparently at that time Gaara had just recently begun to turn his back on his former murderous ways. She'd recently graduated from the academy and all the graduates were lining up and choosing Chunin and Jonin to train them. None of the other academy graduates wanted Gaara as their teacher, they were all afraid of him. None of the prospective masters thought she'd be worth taking on as a disciple due to her fear of weapons, except of course for Gaara. He was also the youngest of all the prospective masters by far, as a matter of fact Gaara was only a year older than her. Despite that she always saw him as an extremely wise sage in a young man's body. She knew of his troubled past but never saw much of it. Only now did she realise that Gaara's wisdom came at the price of a lot of loneliness and suffering on his part.

"Well Gaara, I'd be more than happy to help you understand love." She wrinkled her nose and delved deep into her understanding of the concepts of love. "After the death of my parents I was quite lonely and I yearned for affection, because of this I began to think quite a lot about what it means to love. It seems simple at first because love is something so basic to the human condition, but when you get right down to it there's a lot to think about. And a lot of people will have different ideas about it. It's generally said that there are different types of feelings of affection which we give the word love to as an umbrella term. What I think though is that fundamentally all kinds of love are the same but depending on different conditions it manifests itself in different ways. One kind of manifestation of love is famililal love, the love of your family, like how you think of Kankuro and Temari."

"That's true, I do feel different about those two to most people. Even when I was not well back as a child."

"There's self-love, Philautia as it's called. Although I don't really know about that to be honest?"

"What do you mean?" Gaara asked.

"Well didn't Buddha teach that the self in some ways is like an illusion. Like for example some people like themselves because they have impressive muscles. But let's say they starve for a while and they lose those muscles are they a different person now?" When we like things about ourselves in some ways we are liking things that are also external to us. I think not realising that fact is a mistake you made in the past."

"Hmm. Interesting."

Matsuri waved her hands about. "Of course I'm not criticising you. It's a mistake we all make to some degree or other and there's other mistakes too."

"Oh like what?"

"Well this might seem contradictory to what I just said but let me explain it fully. You see, some people don't love themselves enough. For example my late uncle. He was quite an unpleasant character in many ways. There were of course a number of reasons for this, but one of those reasons was his job. He didn't like his job and he always worked too hard. He would beat himself up at work and then come back all grumpy and angry. You have to be kind to yourself and take it easy sometimes, because if you don't then you end up becoming quite unpleasant like my uncle was. If my uncle had some compassion for himself and took more days off maybe he wouldn't have been so angry all of the time, he might have been able to love other people more."

Gaara nodded. "What other types of love are there."

"Well, there's unconditional love. Something we've immediately after our birth we've all experienced from our parents…" Matusri trailed off as she looked at Gaara and thought of his father realising her error. She then corrected herself. "Or at the very least our mothers. Though obviously we don't remember it. It's something that people strive to realise in their own lives."

"Unconditional love." Gaara murmured. "I think I know what experiencing that feels like. My Sand Jutsu was something that I always thought I received from being the Jinchuuriki of the Shukaku, but as it turns out it was passed down from my mother. That jutsu always protected me for my whole life. I was twelve when I received my first cut. It kept me from any and all harm. What I didn't realise until now was that it was my mother protecting me."

"Wow." Was all Matsuri could say.

Gaara's expression turned into a dark frown. "Knowing that it's gone just makes it all the worse." After wallowing in that thought for a moment Gaara gestured to Matsuri to continue.

Matsuri wanted to continue her explanation, however she first had to address Gaara's concern. "Well don't worry Gaara. No mother can protect her child forever and besides the fact that she protected you for so long will always be there in time."

Gaara smiled. "True. Thanks."

"Who knows? Maybe you'll get it back once you sort out whatever stuff is in your dreams."

"Ah yes." Gaara began. "On the topic of those dreams, my latest one was quite revealing."

"That great!" Matsuri exclaimed. "In what way though?"

"Well, let me tell you."

**FLASHBACK**

Gaara stood in shock as he stared at the ferryman who stood in front of him. "You-you're Charon? The Charon? As in the deity of death that carries people away to the underworld?! So the underworld is real then?!"

The unkempt spirit rolled his eyes at Gaara's barrage of questions. "Oh you humans and your mythologies. If you want to think of me as that Charon then by all means go ahead."

"Well, tell me why did you take me here to the afterlife if I'm not dead."

Charon shook his head. "This is not where souls are meant to go after their vessel dies Gaara. This is not an afterlife.

"It isn't!" Gaara exclaimed gleefully. "I'm so glad. I wouldn't want to think that this kind of place was what awaited us after death!"

"Why would you think death is like this!"

"Well I mean. In a lot of cultures people think that a bad afterlife, hell or purgatory or something can await people who weren't good enough.

Charon rolled his eyes. "You humans flabbergast me. You're already pre-programmed by your genetics and biology to fear death enough as it is? Why would you bother scaring yourselves any further by making up stories of such dreary places?!"

"Well if this place isn't hell then what is it?"

Charon narrowed his eyes. "This is the doing of a powerful necromancer."

"A necromancer!?"

"Yes." Charon spat. "The bastard bewitched me. ME! I'm a Shinigami and he bewitched me! It's appalling."

"Is that why you brought me here?"

Charon nodded. "Not only you, but all the other souls you see here. He possessed me and made me do his will. It pisses me off."

"How did get caught up by him?"

"It was simple really." Charon grumbled. "He made pact with me. I take his mortal life and in exchange I disturb some souls of the dead and take them elsewhere. In the end it turned out to be here. Had I realised that he'd created such a realm I wouldn't have entered the pact with him. I just thought he wanted to create some undead creatures. Normally when I did this sort of thing before, the necromancers thought that it was when they died by natural causes that I would take them. You see I thought he didn't realise that I got to take his life immediately. Once he died the bargain would cease, meaning I would get what I want and he would not disrupt the balance of things. However he was more powerful than I thought. When I took his life it did not matter because he had harvested the energy from other Shinigami. As a result I became his unwitting servant. That was until I brought your Chakra here. You are not dead yet, so it was a breach of the contract. Once I arrived here I was freed once again!"

"So he used you to take Fuu here." Gaara said angrily. "What does he want with her? And what does he want with me!?"

"I don't know." Said Charon. "But it definitely is something. I wish I could fight him myself but I cannot. Powerful barriers stop me, he made this place well. You on the other hand are allowed further in. Destroy the necromancer for me Gaara! Do it and this place will collapse and your chakra will return to you."

"And what of the souls trapped here?"

"You will have saved them. They will be set free from this place."

Gaara looked inland. "How am I supposed to fight him? If my Chakra isn't combined with my physical energy then I can't do Ninjutsu."

"Well then you must unite your physical body with your Chakra then!"

"How?"

"This world is linked with some place in the mortal realm, I would advise going there. In the mean time you can bring your Chakra closer to our mutual enemy so that you will not have to walk long in this world in your corporeal form. That wouldn't be a good idea. Its quite a long walk to the centre so you'd best get going soon."

Gaara wasn't sure whether or not to trust the sordid Charon. A Shinigami by definition is dangerous, but it wasn't like he had any other choice but to do as Charon said since Fuu was trapped here. "Fine. I'm going to defeat this necromancer!"

**Flashback End**

Gaara had just finished telling Matsuri about the vision and Matsuri had not a single word to say.

"Yeah. I don't know what to say either." Said Gaara.

"Who, who is this necromancer? How could such awful Ninjutsu exist?"

"Well there was the Edo-Tensei that the Akatsuki used." Said Gaara. "I imagine some kind of Funinjutsu was used by this Necromancer. Whats more, he wants something with me. I must have some kind of connection with him."

"Could he be someone from this village?" Matsuri asked in terror.

"Most likely." Said Gaara. "But the question we need to find out is who is this necromancer? The archives might have something. I need you to look up information on former or rogue Funinjutsu masters from our village. See if we can find a match for the type of person who would be capable of pulling of such terrible magic."

"You got it sensei!" Shouted Matsuri as she hopped to her feet and saluted Gaara. Normally she would do so in a cheerful and spritely manner. But this time her gait was business like and serious. "I'll do my best."

"Good." Said Gaara. "I will tell the librarian to grant you access to classified information. Come let's go!"

* * *

**With Kankuro…**

Kankuro sat in the Sunagakure council chamber at his usual seat beside the Kazekage's chair. However today Gaara wasn't attending this council meeting. Everyone's eyes were on Kankuro.

"What is it?" Asked Kankuro.

Ebizo the head of the Shinobi council answered. "As the Lord-regent, Kankuro sama it is customary for you to occupy the seat of the Kazegake."

"Especially since our current one is not fit for his role." Added Tojuro slyly.

"That's only currently!" Shouted Baki. "But for a long time now he has been one of the best Kazekage. Its unfortunate about his current predicament. Though he may still recover yet."

Ryusa backed Baki up in his defence of Gaara. "It would definitely be in the best interest of the village if Gaara could return as Kazekage with full power. There can be no doubt about that!"

"Yet doubt I do!" Snickered Tojuro. "Gaara has been drinking heavily I hear! That's why I called this meeting!"

"What!" Shouted Sajo. "So undignified! How could he get drunk on the job!? This is no way for a Kazekage to behave!"

"If this gets out it'll make the village look really bad!" Added Goza. "We must stop him behaving like this."

"Absolutely!" Agreed Tojuro. "Some kind of punishment must be in order. Maybe keep him under house arrest?!"

"Enough!" Shouted Kankuro as he shifted position to the Kazekage's seat. "Tojuro! If I hear you like that again I will cut out your tongue!"

"You cannot harm me you pup!" Retorted Tojuro! "I will have y…."

Tojuro was shocked into silence by the sight of the puppet standing hiding him pointing a blade into his back. His eyes narrowed as he gave Kankuro a death stare.

"What are you doing Kankuro!" said Baki dryly.

"Let me remind you all that if you want to get to my brother you'll have to take me down first! I am the regent Kazekage and what I say goes! And I say that this meeting is over!" With that Kankuro slammed down his fist and made a crack in the table in front of him.

"You may be Kazekage regent", said Ebizo to Kankuro. "But I decide when the meeting ends! It can go on with or without you!" He turned to Tojuro. "The same goes for you. There must be order in this council and if you disrupt that order by making inane comments I will throw you out!"

"Very well." Kankuro said. He twiddled his fingers pulling at the chakra threads attached to his puppet and it whittled back out of sight.

"Now then." Began Ebizo. "Something must be done about our Kazekage."

Kankuro sighed and his eyebrows twitched in anger.

"Don't worry Kankuro." Whispered Baki to him. "I will give you my support."

Kankuro nodded and whispered back to his former teacher. "Thanks I'll need it.

**A/N If you've any comments to make about my writing, any criticism or advice please do let me know I'd be happy to hear it and improve. I know I've a lot of improving to do. See you all in the next chapter. ^_^**

**Edit 5th Oct 2019, I changed up a little bit of the dialogue in this chapter to make Gaara a bit less clueless about the nature of love, since it doesn't make sense that he wouldn't understand love.**


	4. Yashamaru

**A/N: I made some minor changes to the prose and dialogue of earlier chapters. It does not significantly change the plot, I just wanted to address some minor inconsistencies and misinterpretations that I made of character traits.**

It was morning and Shira was meandering through the streets of the civilian part of Sunagakure. At first when he moved back into the village to train Gaara he still had some matters to tie up for the Special forces, so he didn't get much free time. However, he'd recently finished the last outstanding task he had left. So now was finally free to do with his time as he saw fit.

He had just finished his morning training regimen and found himself with the free time to do something that he'd been looking forward to. He was going to visit his old teammate Sen.

He hoped that he'd see her in the streets of Sunagakure. Unlike Shira, Sen did not join the special forces. She chose to remain in Sunagakure when she passed the Chunin-exams, so the only way in which Shira had maintained contact with her was by exchanging the odd letter. He intended to drop a note at her house if he didn't bump into her first, but he figured she could well be at her favourite fast food stall. As he arrived there he found out that his hunch was validated. She sat before him stuffing a delicious dango into her face. The stall worker noticed Shira staring which prompted him to give Shira a strange look. Sen turned around to investigate and nearly choked on her food when she saw her old teammate. She hit her chest with her hand to force the food down. Shira broke into a guffaw at the sight.

"Hahaha good to see you again Sen! I see you haven't changed a bit!"

"Shira!" Sen finally said after wolfing down her food. She turned to the stall worker. "Uh can I order another dango and a yakitori for my friend?"

The worker nodded and set about preparing their food. "Yes ma'am! Coming right up!"

Sen faced Shira again. "You should have let me known you were coming back to visit! I would've planned something!"

"Sorry." Shira said. "I'm here on orders from the Kazekage himself. I didn't have time to write a letter."

"I see." Said Sen as she dismounted from her chair to give Shira a friendly hug. "I'm happy you're here now anyway!"

"It's nice to be back." Said Shira as he gently nudged her out of the hug.

"How's Yome doing?" Asked Sen. "Do you see her much in the special forces?"

"I don't see her enough I'm afraid."

Sen sighed. "That would coincide with the letters she wrote to me. She often complains that she doesn't see you much."

"Yeah." Shira sighed. "We get put together for the odd mission, but Yome's uh… disposition… towards me is something the higher ups aren't too fond of."

Sen's eyes widened. "Why?!"

"They don't like us being much more than machines in the special forces. You know, Shibobi shouldn't seek the meaning for their own existence and all that jazz."

"They still think like that in the special forces huh…" Sen's eyes trailed off along with her thoughts.

"They do like Yome though." Shira continued. "Her medical Ninjutsu and tracking skills are highly valued. I daresay they value her skills above mine."

"Really?" Sen exclaimed. "I'm glad. I was afraid she wouldn't fit in."

Shira attempted to laugh but it fell short. "Hah… To be honest I don't know what kind of person really fits in the special forces."

"Old fashioned people. Who think like elder Tojuro does." Replied Sen sternly.

Shira was taken aback. "Ho ho! Be careful Sen, that's a dangerous thing to say!"

"What? Do you have a problem with it?"

Shira's instincts told him to say, "_of course I don't have a problem with it. To hell with that guy_!" However he had learned to be cautious. Instead he paused and thought carefully. Finally he said "I'm just concerned the wrong person would hear you. With Gaara as Kazekage this village has changed but most of the people who were there before him are still there now."

"Point taken." Sen said with a nod. She then decided to change the subject matter slightly. "Back in the orphanage, all you talked about was how you wanted to be like your father who you revered so highly. That's why you joined the special forces right?"

Shira sighed. "Yes. I realised my childhood wishes indeed. But I'm starting to think differently now that I'm a man. It's no surprise I was orphaned. The missions we carry out in the special forces are dangerous, even now during _Pax-Akatsukia_! I can't imagine what it must have been like in my father's time."

Sen's eyes lit up. "So you're thinking of leaving then?"

Shira nodded.

"You know that Yome follows you wherever you go, right? If you quit that means she won't stay either… Our team will finally be back together!"

The stall worker held up the food which he'd prepared. "Foods ready!"

Shira sat down beside his old teammate. "Thanks Sen. I'll make sure to repay you."

"Sure thing." Said Sen with a simper. "But…."

"But what?"

You can only repay me when you and Yome are out of the forces and we're back together as a team again!" She bit into her food and smirked. "Until then you'll be in my debt."

Shira nodded solemnly in reply and then wolfed down his food in four seconds flat.

Seeing how quickly her old teammate ate his food took Sen aback. She glared at him. "Y-y-you didn't even savour it!"

"Heh heh." A bead of sweat dripped down Shira's face once he realised his mistake. He decided to change the subject matter. "You know Rock Lee is coming to visit soon…"

Sen rolled her eyes and flashed a cheeky smile. "Oh, your boyfriend is coming to town is he?"

"What!" Shira's cheeks flushed. "He's not my boyfriend! Look I have nothing against that sort of thing but I don't swing that way!"

Sen giggled. "Well with the way you talked about him back in the day I got a totally different impression!"

Now it was Shira's turn to glare, and he kept doing so while as Sen made sure to try and embarrass him as much as possible as payback for not properly appreciating his food. Afterwards they kept talking for a good long while. They had a lot to catch up on.

* * *

The very minute that Rock Lee and Tenten entered Sunagakure they were greeted by Kankuro who had anxiously awaited their arrival. He promptly led them into the headquarters and explained everything that they needed to know about his brother's predicament.

"And that's how it is with my brother at the moment." Kankuro said to conclude his explanation.

Rock Lee and Tenten glanced at each other and then back to Kankuro.

"What do you want us to do about it?" Tenten asked.

"In these trying times my brother must keep up his training. Lee, you've never been able to cast Ninjutsu, despite that you're a Chunin right? You're the perfect guy to train Gaara."

Lee had spent his entire childhood being mocked for his lack of talent in Ninjutsu. This hardship was something that he'd mostly overcame. However, his experiences left him with one lingering negative affect. Praise got to his head too easily. He craved praise. So unsurprisingly he puffed up his lithe yet firm chest and beat it like a gorilla in excitement. "I am glad you recognised my prowess Kankuro. Very well. I will pass onto Gaara the path of true grit like Gai Sensei passed on to me!"

Tenten facepalmed. "Hold your horses there Lee."

"What's wrong Tenten? We have a mission and we must perform it. I will gladly accept this duty!"

"What's wrong," an astute Tenten said, "is that there's things about this mission I don't understand. For example, I know why Lee would be good for this mission but why would you bring me along? And also don't you have Shira in your village?"

At first the mention of Shira caused Lee's eyes to light up. "Shira!?" He clasped his hands together and raised them to his chin as if he were praying. "I thought I'd never see him again! But maybe I'll get the chance now!" Then Lee put two and two together. He frowned and his tone of voice changed from exuberant to sceptical. "Yeah, is he not good enough? I mean when I last fought him he was pretty much on my level. And he also never could use Ninjutsu, he's exactly the same as me!"

"Well" Kankuro explained, "Shira IS training Gaara. He was supposed to go on a multi-week long mission for the Special Forces, starting now. We were hiring you to fill in for him while he was gone but his mission was cancelled. We figured since we've already paid for you guys we might as well make use of you. Besides I'm sure you both have a lot to offer. You Lee with your Taijutsu skills and you Tenten with your mastery of weapons."

"Ok." Tenten's demeanour became relaxed. "That makes sense. I'll be happy to show your brother some tricks, although I'd hardly say I'm a master at anything. I'm more of a jack of all trades."

"Well, you certainly know quite a lot." Kankuro said. "There's one more thing too. Your sensei, he fought alongside Naruto and Killer Bee against the masked man before the rest of the allied shinobi forces could come to help right?"

Tenten nodded. "Yes. That's right."

"Did he tell you anything about that time?"

Tenten furrowed her brow for a moment. "A bit. Not much."

"Ok." Kankuro said. "Well Gaara will probably want to ask you about that. Thanks. I'm kept quite busy so I'll just lead you both to him now." He turned around and began to walk down the hallway, but was stopped in his tracks by an Anbu Black-Ops Ninja who suddenly made an appearance.

"Excuse me lord-regent Kazekage", the masked Anbu ninja said, "I have a message from the council." He held out a scroll to Kankuro.

Kankuro sighed. "Very well. Read it."

The Anbu opened the scroll. "Lord Regent Kankuro, bringing the leaf Ninja into this was a grave mistake. You are to report to the council immediately for an emergency meeting."

"Bastards and their schemes! I don't know how my brother ever had the patience!" Kankuro muttered to himself. He then looked the Anbu Ninja square in the eye. "Tell the council that I will be with them soon but I must escort the Shinobi I hired to the site of their mission."

"But!"

Kankuro twitched his finger and a hideous looking puppet armed with a ridiculous amount of blades swept in from around a nearby corner. It dangled demonically in the air, kept afloat by Kankuro's Puppetry Ninjutsu. "That is my response to the council's message Shinobi!"

"Yes Lord-Regent Kazekage!" Squealed the Anbu ninja. He saluted Kankuro and dashed away.

Once the Anbu was gone Kankuro motioned to Lee and Tenten to continue.

"We're not going to be at any risk for our part in all this are we?" Asked Tenten.

"Don't worry Tenten!" Shouted Lee. "With the fire of our youth we'll overcome any assailant and no harm can come to us!"

Tenten shook her head. "Oh Lee…"

Kankuro faced Tenten and placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry. If I so much as catch a whiff of a mere possibility that they might lay a finger on you two I'll gut them like stuck pigs!"

Tenten's face twitched nervously. "Ok." Was all she could say. Even Lee was taken aback. Not many more words were spoken between the three before Kankuro left to meet with the council.

* * *

Tojuro had always been displeased with the state of affairs in Sunagakure ever since Gaara had taken power as Kazekage. Tojuro had always opposed the appointment of Gaara to the office of Kazekage. In his eyes, the boy was simply too young to rule over the village, the only reason he ascended to that rank was because the other cowardly councillors feared Gaara so much. Tojuro wasn't alone in his dissatisfaction with Gaara. There were many elders who had always hated Gaara, even after his popularity rose within the village. They organised themselves into a faction known as "The Enlightened Elders". Every once in a while the faction would convene in the home of one of their members. To Sunagakure they merely looked like a social group of old gentlemen. Few ever realised the true nature of their nefarious meetings. Those that did would run the risk of meeting an unfortunate end.

As Tojuro stepped in the door and paced down the hallway he noticed that one of his co-conspirators was waiting for him. A retired captain of the Anbu black ops.

"Tojuro, my friend. I have something to tell you." Said the captain as he joined Tojuro on his walk to the living room of the host of this evenings "Enligtened Elder" meeting.

"Not now. I'm afraid I don't have much time, an emergency council meeting is soon to commence and I must be there soon.

"Oh. What's it about?"

"Gaara's impertinent brother has made a grave mistake. He invited Konoha ninja to train Gaara which will give us the leverage we need to put some chains on that annoying upstart. I am only coming here to tell everyone about that."

They arrived on the scene of the meeting. Everyone in the room was a like-minded to Tojuro. They disdained Gaara as Kazekage and the changes in management he brought which went against their unscrupulous principles. All of them loved the idea of their village, but they cared more about the wellbeing of its principles and traditions than the well-being of its youth. Their vision for the future was to mirror the past in every single conceivable way. They were mentally stuck in the second great shinobi war.

"Tojuro." Said the captain. "I know you're in a rush but I still think you'll want to hear out what I have to say. It's important."

"All right then, while you are here let everyone know."

"It's about Gaara. He seems to be doing his own research into his condition. He must believe Funinjutsu is somehow related to it so he sent his student Matsuri into the library to access files about past Funinjutsu masters from our village."

"What could that have to do with his malady?" Queried one of the elders in the room to Tojuro.

"I don't know." Mused Tojuro. "But if he finds the solution to his problems then that's bad news for us. It's good that he's weak at the moment, it gives us an opportunity for power the likes of which we've never had in a good while." He faced one of the men in the room who had some control over the library and the village's database. "Make sure that brat can't access the files she seeks!"

The co-conspirator shook his head. "I'm afraid that Gaara is a tricky one. The good captain told me about it first. I tried to block her, but Gaara managed to figure a way around it. That boy is nothing if not cunning."

"Curse the youth and their technological prowess!" Tojuro spat.

"What will we do now? Tojuro?" Asked one of the men. "We have to do something!"

"There's only one thing left to do. Make sure she doesn't reach Gaara with that information."

All the men in the meeting burst into a flurry of alarmed whispers and murmurs. "We can't just assassinate her!" One man shouted. "We won't get away with it! Not without the time to properly plan for it!"

"Not to worry my fellow elder, I have under my control a squadron who can handle a task like this."

"What squadron?"

Tojuro's lips twisted into a nefarious grin which stretched from ear to ear. "None other than the silver scorpions!"

The elders all went silent and their faces were blank with shock. Eventually whispers started to build up in the background before finally one person posed the question that was on all of their minds. "H-how did you manage to get them to bend to your will."

"I did something for them back in the day and now they owe me a favour. They don't like owing anyone favours and they've been waiting a long time for the opportunity to pay me back."

"Ah yes." Said the retired captain with a smile. "I remember that time. So much bloodshed haha. I can give them the message for you Tojuro."

"Yes. Do it at once." Tojuro turned to address the rest of his faction. "Now, I have a council meeting to get to, so I'll just give you all a quick update before I go on my way."

* * *

As the Suna council convened an air of tension hung over them like a dark cloud. Kankuro had earned the vexation of just about every council member. Firstly he came in late and impudently grumbled about the meeting taking place at all. Second and worst of all he allowed information about Gaara's delicate predicament to fall into the hands of foreign Shinobi. This second mistake was so grave in the council's eyes that even those who normally caused little to no trouble for Gaara were frothing at the mouth and demanding some kind of redress.

"You can't be serious about hiring leaf ninja to train Gaara!" Shouted Joseki. "It's a criminal waste of resources. Gaara is a lost cause, he can't use Ninjutsu anymore! To think you are throwing away so much of the villages funds for this!"

"You're absolutely right Joseki!" Sneered Tojuro. "I couldn't agree more! It's selfish behaviour on behalf of our Kazekage and regent to throw away the village's resources like this!"

"Normally I'm not in agreement with these two." Added Goza. "But this time I am. It's a great insult to this village to throw away her resources and to give out sensitive information! Why would you let any leaf Ninja in on this, even if it was for the purpose of Gaara's training. At the end of the day they are still foreigners!"

"I know both of these Ninja personally and I trust them!" Shouted Kankuro. "We've worked with Konohagakure and shared secrets with them in the past, they are our closest ally!"

"You're young so you don't have the experience that we do." Sighed Baki. "I've seen allies turn to enemies at the drop of a pin."

"Even you Baki!?" Whispered Kankuro under his breath.

Tojuro grinned from ear to ear as he read the situation. It was going better than he'd originally thought it could. Even Baki wasn't taking the side of the Sand Siblings on this issue. If there was ever at time to press his ambitions it was now. "There must be some kind of reprisal for this. It's only fair! I would say these actions border on treason!"

"And we must do something about those leaf Ninja too." Joseki added. "They know too much."

At this point Kankuro stood up. He'd had enough. Baki quietly urged him to calm down, pulling at Kankuro's sleeve. "Come on Kankuro calm down!" His attempts didn't work, so he tried to say something to diffuse the situation.

"That's going too far! Kankuro's and Gaara's actions weren't treason! Watch what you say!"

"Ah, but even you must agree that something has to be done!" Said Tojuro. "Everone, raise your hand if you think we must somehow address this situation with some sort of reprisal.

All the council members except for Baki and Kankuro and Ebizo raised their hands. Ryusa only half raised his hand while adding, "We must do something, but I'm against the idea of punishment."

"I am of the same opinion as Ryusa.: Ebizo the head of the council added.

After happily surveying the responses Tojuro gleefully said. "Well, there you have it. Six out of ten in favour of reprisal, and eight out of ten in favour of doing something to quell the situation. A majority either way."

"Enough!" Kankuro slammed down on the stone table with enough force to cause it to crack. The council went silent. "None of you will walk out of here alive if you lay a finger on my brother or the Konoha Ninja!"

The entire council was silent. Although they held the power of authority they all knew that right now in this very moment Kankuro could kill them all easily. While all the council members were skilled and powerful Ninja in their own right, Kankuro was by far the best Puppet-Master that the village had produced since Sasori of the Red Sand. Then there was Baki who would probably take Kankuro's side in a fight. Out of all the men in the room he was the second strongest, being one of the village's best users of Wind-Style ninjutsu.

Joseki was the one to break the silence. "I thought you were more like your father Kankuro. More rational, more becoming of a Shinobi. I see now that you are just like your brother, you rule through fear."

"F-fine." Tojuro stammered. "There will be no punishment."

Ebizo, the head of the council had stayed silent throughout most of the meeting. But now he finally spoke up. "I think it would be a grave mistake to harm the Konoha Shinobi. And it's sensationalist to call Kankuro and Gaara's actions treason. But we must take care that information does not spread when we don't need it to. Ryusa's idea of a tempered action to deal with this should do. We need to simply keep the Konoha Shinobi under observation and prevent them from passing the information on."

"Yes." Nodded Ryusa. "Keep the leaf Ninja by Gaara so they can train him. This way Gaara can receive the combat tutelage he needs and we preserve our village's security!"

"But that's just like putting him under house arrest!" Protested Kankuro.

"Well I'm sorry Kankuro but your negligence is the cause of all this." Sighed Ebizo. "We don't want to harm our precious allies or your brother. But we can't afford to let word of this get out. So this is the best solution for the time being. I promise no harm will come to anyone."

Kankuro stormed out of the room. "Remember what I said earlier! Those words still hold!"

* * *

When Lee and Tenten stepped into Gaara's office they were taken aback. Gaara sat at his desk pouring over different kinds of books and scrolls and he spoke to the pair of Konoha Shinobi when he saw them coming in. "Ah, Lee and Tenten. It's good to see you both." He gave a weak smile.

"Likewise." Said Lee as he and Tenten bowed respectfully. "There was a degree of awkwardness to Lee's tone of voice.. Their mental image of Gaara was the proud and powerful Kazekage who had all the strength and vigour of youth and the honour and respect of a hero. They were shocked that the Gaara they remembered was the same person as the tired and drained young man before them.

"I had Shira training me for a while, he was supposed to go on a mission so I hired you two, but his mission got cancelled. Never the less, there are still some things you might help me with."

Tenten nodded. "We know, Kankuro filled us in."

Gaara got straight to business with the two Konoha Shinobi, asking them questions about the experience of the Sensei Might Gai during the battle against the masked man who later turned out to be a known Uchiha clan member. When asked by Tenten why didn't he invite their sensei in person or send him a letter, Gaara explained that he would have liked to ask Gai himself. However he didn't want to bother Gai by asking him to come to Suna while he was still injured, and as for the letter, he doubted that the letter would make it to Konoha as one of Gaara's political opponents would sabotage his efforts. The only sure way was to directly apply for a mission through Suna's system where sabotage would be quickly investigated and where a direct explanation of matters wouldn't be needed until the contractors arrived in Suna.

Satisfied with the explanation Tenten and Lee explained to Gaara what they had heard from their master about his exploits during the war. In doing so they confirmed that the 7-tails Jinchuuriki had been reincarnated via edo-tensei. This confirmed that the Fuu in the dream was the real Fuu. Something that Gaara was pretty much sure of already, but now the 0.00001% of doubt that remained within him was completely vanquished. After doing some training and working some more Gaara decided to take a nap.

* * *

As Gaara descended into deep sleep his consciousness once again was tethered to his chakra, returning him to the bleak world of his many recent nightmares. While his body slept his chakra awoke and Gaara found himself lying on the ground.

Getting up proved to be slightly more challenging than he expected. As he rose from his recumbent position he had to struggle against a number of roots which hand grown up from the ground around him and wrapped their gnarled tendrils around his body. This world would consume anything that stayed in place for too long. Gaara had borne witness to this dreary fact, there were many souls he'd come across that did not wish to follow the course that was directed to them by the necromancer, so he disposed of them in another way. The lair of this necromancer's creation was a trap in and of itself. Any soul that stayed put would be consumed by the land, they'd grow into the ground and the ground would grow into them until there could no longer be any difference between them and the ground. They would become a part of the landscape and their screams would add the wails of the frigid gale that swept these empty hills.

Gaara shook the dirt and dust off his frame and continued forward. Even though he was deep into this strange world and everywhere around him was the same hilly wasteland he still knew which direction to head. As the Shinigami had said to him earlier he had to go to the centre. He could tell where the centre was because even in this world of perpetual night not lit up by a single star the clouds would somehow manage to be darker over there. There was also the fact that Gaara's sense of dread grew more and more the closer he got to it.

It wasn't long before Gaara saw more lost souls ambling their way along, They made no sound and no light entered their eyes. At first when Gaara laid sight upon the souls of the dead here he felt a strong sense of fear, after all many of the culture and creeds that he'd came into contact with had conjured up awful tales and images of the deceased. Though as he traversed this land and spent time in the presence of the dead Gaara realised that his fears were unfounded. All those stories and myths of evil wraiths and predatory spirits he'd heard his whole life were mere projections of human-kind's own fear of death. These lost souls were nothing to fear, they were only the dead after all.

Now the sight of them only made Gaara feel both pity and a strong desire to save them and set them free. Seeing them also reminded him that Fuu was trapped here and it steeled his resolve to press on. Since Fuu was a Jinchuuriki Gaara figured that her life had more than likely been strictly controlled and regulated much like his own was. It was bad enough that there was a lack of freedom in her life, but to deny her rest in death was truly despicable. "What terrible dark Ninjutsu does this necromancer employ?" Gaara wondered. "And how can I stop this from ever happening again?! It's only right than such an evil practice should be ended once and for all!" At the moment there were no obvious answers to his questions but he hoped to find them in due time.

As Gaara walked along he saw more figures in the hills. They were masked and wore dark clothes."Anbu Black Ops." He murmured to himself. As he looked at them his attention was drawn to one in particular. Gaara could not see the man's face yet for some unknown reason he could sense that he knew the person. So Gaara walked over to him and as he drew nearer the man's identity was recognisable.

"Yashamaru!" Gaara gasped.

As Gaara spoke the ghostly Anbu-Ninja took of his mask to reveal his face. It was indeed Yashamaru, although his hair which had once been as fair as the desert sand of Sunagakure was now as grey as the sky above. His skin was paler than Gaara remembered and his previously violet eyes were obsidian black. Despite this Gaara still recognised the man's appearance.

"It is you Uncle! Dammit! How did he trap you here too!"

"I could not go on." Spoke Yashamaru in a phantasmal voice. His expression then turned to shock as he shook his head about. "I can speak! What!? Amazing!"

"Why are you surprised."

"I thought I'd done all my talking. After I died I couldn't talk anymore, even if I wanted to. But now I can talk again! Oh Gaara I have so much to tell you!"

"Well, how about you start by telling me how you got stuck here."

"Right." Said Yashamaru. After I died I was stuck I woke up in a dark desert, it seemed to be night-time there, in fact it was always night time. Though it wasn't as bad as here, there was still colour in everything. Eventually I found a small campfire where I saw some old Shinobi I used to know. I sat down beside them hoping to talk to them but I quickly found that I couldn't say a word. Nor could I leave the campsite. We all just sat together there in silence waiting for something to happen. Eventually a Shinigami showed up. I didn't know what I had to wait for but somehow I knew that the Shinigami wasn't it. Even so, when it made me an offer I took it up. The Shinigami offered to take me from the campfire to somewhere else, I obliged because I was so tired of waiting. I really wish I hadn't!"

"I'm sorry that you're here right now Yashamaru,." Gaara whimpered. "I hate this damned necromancer!"

"Even though I was horrible to you, you still pity me?" Yashamaru's face became a mask of anguish, he clenched his eyes together to try and hold back tears. "I'm not deserving of your kindness. Gaara, I need to tell you something! When I attacked you it really was because I had no choice! It really was just an order! I never resented you for my sister's death! It wasn't your fault! Your mother loved you! I loved you! You were loved! I lied Gaara! I lied when I said you weren't loved!"

Gaara smiled but cried no tears for he'd already cried about this enough. "I know. It took many years but I figured that out."

Yashamaru's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yes. Really. I remember what you taught me, that wounds of the heart can only be healed by love."

"Oh yeah. Heheh. I remember that conversation we had when you were young. I meant every word I said that day!"

"I hope my hunch is right." Gaara murmured to himself as he leaned closer to Yashamaru and placed his hand on his uncle's shoulder. "You had to wait to pass on because your heart was hurt. So will show you some love and heal that wound!"

Yashamaru whimpered. "Y-you don't mean!?"

"Yes I do!" Gaara asserted. "Yashamaru, I love you and I forgive you!"

Yashamaru's hair turned from grey to blonde, his skin filled out in colour and light once more entered his violet eyes. He embraced Gaara hugging him with his ethereal form. "You saved me Gaara!"

"Yes, and I intend to save everyone else here too!"

"If it was anyone other than you I'd be doubtful, but I know you can stop Devadatta!"

"Devadatta?"

"Yes." Said Yashamaru. "He's the necromancer behind all of this. He was a councillor from our village, a master of puppetry and Funinjutsu."

The whole landscape shook with the tremor of a mighty earthquake and the sky opened up as a pillar of white light shone through and pierced through the darkness of the world. "I don't have much more time!" Shouted Yashamaru as he took Gaara into a gentle embrace. "Gaara I want you to know that you are loved! Darkness will come and go but it does not last for ever Gaara. If you can weather the storm you'll see a bright new day." The light enveloped Yashamaru until he became one with it, then the pillar of light receded back into the sky leaving open a wound in the world. As it did so all the ghosts stopped their forced walk and turned their heads to face the pillar of light. It's transcendent beauty dazzled every single soul, and in that moment all the people stuck in the necromancers prison felt free. Once the light had gone the sky closed around the wound, grey clouds spread over it until the hole was no more. But even after that, the world now was less dark than it once was.

**A/N: For those of you who also read my other story Tales of a Rogue Jinchuuriki, I plan on working on that now that this chapter is completed, I've kept you guys waiting too long, but I want to get this fanfic finished too so I'll be working on both simultaneously.**

**Sorry for the extra weeks this took to write. I had most of it written pretty early on but got stuck trying to right some of the scenes. At any rate I hope you enjoyed. **

**Next up Matsuri is confronted by assailants, Shira proves his prowess and Gaara finds out more about the necromancer.**


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